Adding value: we are more than just language teachers

Judy Copage

In the past …

Thorn, M. (1979) Exploring English. London: Cassells

Simple grammatical syllabus

And now?

Changing views of both LEARNING and LANGUAGE

Colourful, well designed, varied input

What is expected of language teachers today?

• Deliver the language syllabus … AND

• Develop world knowledge• Develop intercultural awareness• Develop citizenship • Develop moral and psychological

development• Develop cognitive skills• Prepare students for work/college

Why bother?

• “… students will demonstrate their competency in such basic subjects as English, mathematics, science, history, and geography. In addition, students will acquire the thinking skills that will allow them to become responsible citizens, independent learners, and productive workers.”

• “All adults will be sufficiently literate, knowledgeable, and skilled to compete in a global economy and behave as responsible citizens.”

University of Virginia 1989 Symposium on education (extract)

• Precisely how are EFL teachers going to make students independent learners and responsible citizens?

World knowledge

• Texts, dialogues and pictures contain information about the world

• More formally, CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) programmes link English to other curriculum subjects – work on language and content

Inter-cultural awareness

Citizenship• Education for citizenship equips young people

with the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in public life.

• Citizenship encourages them to take an interest in topical and controversial issues and to engage in discussion and debate.

• Pupils learn about:– their rights– responsibilities– duties and freedoms – laws, justice and democracy

http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/subjects/key-stage-3/citizenship/index.aspx

• They learn to take part in decision-making and different forms of action. They play an active role in the life of their schools, neighbourhoods, communities and wider society as active and global citizens.

Moral and psychological development

“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” Oscar Wilde

• Build self-esteem• Awareness of others• Judgment and reasoning• Seeing both sides of an issue• Be an individual .... etc. etc. etc

You are a character educator. You are helping to shape the character of the students you come in contact with.

How do you educate for character?

• the way you talk • the behaviours you model• the conduct you tolerate• the actions you encourage • the expectations you transmit

http://www.goodcharacter.com

• “We need to engage our students in activities that make them think critically about moral and ethical questions and inspire them to become committed to moral and ethical actions.”

“Our aim should be to develop independent thinkers who are committed to moral principals in their lives, and who are likely to do the right thing even under challenging circumstances.”

http://www.goodcharacter.com

Ethical problem-solving

• Georgia was fifteen minutes into her maths exam when she began to panic. This exam was worth most of her grade in the class. She understood  maths - even liked it -and usually did really well. Her constant problem was that she wasn’t a strong test-taker. Her grades never reflected her understanding of the material she studied.

• Now, she was stuck on one problem worth twenty-five points on the test. She put her head down on the desk and concentrated as hard as she could. She remembered doing a similar problem in class and explaining it to her friend Jessie, but now she was so stressed out by the test, she couldn’t even remember how to begin the problem. She imagined her parents’ looking at her report card.

• Jessie was sitting right in front of her. He is always a good test taker and had already solved the problem. The teacher had his backed turned and was on the other side of the room. Georgia could look over Jessie’s shoulder, get the answer, and no one would know.

• What should she do? 

Reasoning• She works hard in class and

understands the material, too. But she regularly does badly on tests

• She often helped Jessie in class – he often doesn’t understand maths, but he’s good at tests.

• The teacher always gives grades for test scores and not for anything else.

• She glanced over Jessie’s shoulder just long enough to get the final answer to the question. Then, she figured out the rest of the problem on her own.

Google ‘ethical dilemmas for students’ for more ...

Cognitive skills

• Memory – storage and recall• Simple mathematical- logical reasoning• Visual perception

etc, etc, etc....

Vocabulary Storage Techniques

• Word Webs

FOOD

Fruit

Vegetables

Meat

• Categorising

Geography words

Landmountainforesthilldesert

WaterriverseaoceanlakeSnacksapplepear

orange

Memory

Recall

Maths

Visual perception

Metacognition

Metacognition is awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes and includes:

• Identifying and analysing a task• Planning steps to achieve the task• Reflection on task achievement• Monitoring progress

This helps students to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

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Questions to ask

“How can I do this task? How long will it take?”“What have I done before that’s similar?”“ How did I do this task?” “Where did I find the answer?” “ Why is the answer right/wrong?” “What is usually easy/difficult for me?” “What do I need to practise more?” “What am I good at?” “What can I achieve by the end of term if I spend 1 hour a day studying outside class?”

Metacognition starts at an early age!

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Prepare students for work

Prepare students for higher education

• Organisation• Time management• Autonomy - self-directed study and self-discipline• Personal responsibility for progression in learning• Accessing support• Academic reading - critical appraisal of sources

(Wikipedia!)• Creative and critical thinking• Groupwork – contribute and work as part of a team• Public speaking - give presentations• Research skills• Academic writing

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Teachers today

Rather, we must be Master of all trades and Jack of none

Judy Copage

judy.copage@pearson.com